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Living With Open Hands
To give unselfishly, to love the least of these
Jesus I’m learning how to live with open hands
All of these treasures that I hold will never satisfy my soul
Jesus I lay it at your throne with open hands
– Matt Papa, “Open Hands”Lately the Lord has been teaching me to hold loosely the blessings that come from Him—to live unselfishly—to slay the idol of convenience and comfort. It doesn’t come without its challenges, especially when the Jones’ are doing this, and the Smith’s are doing that. But I’m finding incredible freedom in it.
In Nehemiah 8-9, the returned remnant from Babylon, led by Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the scribe, came under such conviction regarding the sin of their forefathers, that they formally and publicly repented as an entire people.
Verses 25-26 of chapter nine explain the sin that led them to the condition they were currently in.
“They captured fortified cities and a fertile land. They took possession of houses full of every good thing, hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive groves, fruit trees in abundance.
So they ate, were filled and grew fat, and reveled in Your great goodness.
But they became disobedient and rebelled against You, and cast Your law behind their backs and killed Your prophets who had admonished them so that they might return to You, and they committed great blasphemies.”
Notice the progression: They ate —- They were filled —- They grew fat.
The blessings of God led to obesity, which led to disobedience and rebellion, which led to a casting aside of the law, which led to murder and blasphemy. Blessings to blasphemy, with a few stops in between. Sin doesn’t happen in a vacuum. There was a progression of events that led God’s people down the path they were on.
The blessings of God had become their god. And no doubt their religiosity and knowledge of the law had led to spiritually full bellies. And spiritually full bellies with no spiritual exercise leads to spiritual obesity. Full bellies are prone to disobedience and rebellion when there is no action to accompany it—when there is no genuine love for Christ. The blessings of God had become their god.
In God is the Gospel, John Piper writes, “All the enticements to God that are not God are precious and precarious. They can lead us to God or lure us to themselves.” (p. 143) The challenge is just that—to allow the blessings of God to steer our hearts closer toward Him and to cause us to love Him more deeply rather than to direct us further away and cause our love for Him to grow cold.
I think that part of the answer to that challenge is living with open hands—understanding that everything comes from Him—that “none pay [Him] with anything that [He] did not, in the first place, give” (Augustine, Confessions)—that it all belongs to Him and is on loan to us that it might further enhance His glory.
God, we have tasted and seen that You are good. We’ve eaten, and we are filled. And now the very real danger is that we could become fat—spiritually unfit—bloated from an abundance of religiosity and divine blessings that we don’t deserve. Our full bellies are prone to rebellion. So, help us, O Mighty Spirit of God, to surrender the things that You graciously and generously give us, and that in doing so, we might be led closer to Your heart. Amen.
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Those Who Say the Most are Saying Nothing
A couple of years ago, I heard Matt Redman say in a worship workshop directed toward songwriters, “In our lyrics, we must paint the grandest description of God that we possibly can.” That idea will likely remain forever imprinted on my heart when I approach a song. I pray it does. I haven’t always done the best job of that, I confess. But I want to be ever-striving to paint a picture of God that is worthy of who He is. And though human language falls short to describe Him both fully and completely, language is, nevertheless, what we have been given. And so, as songwriters, pastors, preachers, teachers, parents of young children, college students, coffee shop baristas, whatever, the challenge for us is to both maintain a high view of God, and then seek to honor Him in our description of Him.
The other day, this idea was again reinforced as I read Augustine’s (AD 354 – 430) unbelievable description of God in chapter 1, book 1 of his Confessions. Allow the greatness of God to seep into your heart and mind in a fresh way as you read this, and may it challenge you as it has me to love Him deeper and to speak of Him greater.
“What other lord is Lord, what other god but God?–highest, best, most powerful, … most merciful yet most just, hidden far away yet very near, most beautiful yet most strong, most fixed yet most elusive, changeless in changing all things; neither young nor old, you give youth back to all things yet age the proud away insensibly; active always, always at rest, you acquire without lacking, you support, fill, and protect; create, raise, and complete; seeking, though you have all; loving, yet not inflamed; jealous, yet not disturbed; regretful, without remorse; angry, without intemperance; you change event without a change of plan; acquiring what is at hand without having lost; never in need, yet happy at gain; receiving, without exacting interest on what is owed you; overpaid to be put in debt, yet none pay you with anything you did not, in the first place, give; you honor debts without owing, cancel debts without losing. And what, with all this, have I said, my God, my life holy and sweet to me, what can anyone say when speaking of you? Yet we must say something when those who say the most are saying nothing.”
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Summer Fly-By
Well, here’s a fly-by look at our summer. The first week of June we joined the students of Ingleside Baptist Church (of Macon, GA) at Myrtle Beach for a week of camp. We always enjoy leading worship for this incredible church. We had the privilege of partnering with Dr. Alvin Reid from Southeastern Seminary.
Beginning the fourth week of June, we were gone for three consecutive weeks leading camps–all three in Myrtle Beach. The first with Next Level Church and Ridge Church of Charlotte. The second with Green Meadows Baptist of Winston-Salem, and the third with Journey Church. It was a crazy three weeks of non-stop action, but we saw the Lord do some great things. We saw many students come to faith in Christ and many more commit to following Christ with more passion and fervor.
The third week of July I was with my buddy, Cameron Wooten, in Greenville, SC leading worship every evening for his students. It was a week of service projects and getting our hands dirty. And along the way, I was kept quite entertained by the many humorous church signs literally on every corner–after all, it is Greenville, the heart of the Bible belt.
Meanwhile, Tasha was back in Raleigh with her small group helping to get the new Journey warehouse ready for worship.
The following week, we packed up the family once more and headed back to Myrtle Beach for our last week of camp–this time with the students of First Baptist Church, Whitsett, NC–an amazing bunch of students with a passion for Jesus. After a week there, we packed up and headed back to Raleigh to celebrate Micaiah’s 1-year birthday and to continue helping to get the new Journey warehouse ready in time for the first worship service August 15.
All in all, it was a great summer. Incredibly rewarding, yet physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally draining. I discovered that 6 weeks on the road for one summer is about my limit! But I am incredibly thankful to the Lord for the fruit that He allowed us to see and to be a small part of. This past weekend, we were blessed to be a part of the first official worship service in the new space at Journey. It was an amazing weekend, and the best is yet to come. Thanks for your prayers and support.
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Paying No Attention
Lately as I’ve been reading through the OT, it’s the negative verses of Scripture that have been having the greatest impact on me. By “negative” I simply mean those verses or passages of Scripture that are descriptive of an event or character that went contrary to heart of God. This morning as I finished up 2 Chronicles, I read another such verse:
“The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention.” (2 Chron. 33:10)It stuck out to me like a sore thumb and I was immediately pierced to the heart. It made me wonder how many times the Lord has tried to speak to me and I’ve simply paid no attention. How many times do I ignore His still small voice? How often do I feel a prompting of the Holy Spirit, and then walk the other way?
Tasha and I both have been reading David Platt’s book Radical, and in the process, the Lord has spoken some pretty direct and specific things into my life, most of which are not easy to hear. But my prayer is that as our family continues to seek the Lord and His will for our lives, our small steps of obedience will lead to more immediate and larger steps of obedience—that we would grow in our understanding that His still small voice is worthy to be trusted—that He knows what is best for our lives—and that to ignore it or pay no attention to it is perhaps the most foolish and illogical thing that we could possibly do.
O Lord, may it be so. Let us hear and then obey.
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Jimmy Dean
It’s been a while, but here’s a fun Magic Motion Monday to help get you through the day! May it be a blessing to you.
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